HasidiCult

There are a number of big misconceptions that I encounter as a teen living with   juvenile idiopathic arthritis. I have  seropositive polyarthritis, which is the type that's most similar to  adult  rheumatoid arthritis . One misconception is that kids don't get arthritis. Wrong! It's a different kind of arthritis, yes, but it is just as serious, if not more. Another is that if I don't have visible inflammation, then I must be either faking or it's not that bad. This is so incorrect! My arthritis is thankfully not visible, but that doesn't mean it's not there. It means that I need to get it under control BEFORE it deforms my joints. Once they're deformed, it's too late. I even have erosions on my bones already, but the average person can't see that. It's only seen through a specialized scan, like an MRI. So the fact that my fingers don't look like sausages is not a reason to say that I'm "just lazy," especially when I'm t

Don't minimize your impact on the world. Many people care about you, Many people love you, Many people wish you would realize that more. I'm going through a rough patch, but I'm trying to keep smiling and weather the storm. I'm giving myself space to feel my emotions, but also remembering the good times. It's all the little moments that make life worth it. So please, remember your worth. And know that there are good moments ahead of you. Hugs to all of you!!! 🤗❤️

Shabbos, the weekly Jewish holiday, should be a day of rest. But for survivors, it can be just the opposite. I was going to write this as an inspiration piece, full of encouragement of how you can keep going and keep Shabbos even when the going is really rough. (Haha, as if.) But then, I thought, to hell with that. Let's be real.  Keeping Shabbos as a trauma survivor is hell. Plain and simple. Majority of my coping mechanisms are melacha ( which is the term for forbidden work on Shabbos), so I can't cope with the tremendous amount of anxiety I feel. Listening to music? Nope. Putting on lotion? Nada. Calling a friend? Can't do that either. Cutting myself? Just kidding. Don't do that anymore. Plus, all of my major traumas happened on Shabbos, so that doesn't help things much. Even just thinking of the day gets me jittery. As a child, I was molested by a predator in the neighborhood who attended the same Shul (synagogue) as my family. He also happens to be a huge donor

Recently, I've had to switch medications for my juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. I was on a medication called hydroxychloroquine (yes, the same one that made the news for Covid-19...), which I later found out did nothing to help my disease progression. I then switched to a wonderful new doctor who specializes in pediatric rheumatology who suddenly made everything make sense. I'll spare you the elaborate details, but suffice it to say that my previous rheumatologist had diagnosed me with adult rheumatoid arthritis and was treating me as such, regardless of the fact that juvenile and adult arthritis are diagnosed and treated completely differently.  So I was obviously pretty bummed to hear that I spent nine months on a medication that was useless. My new doctor put me on a med that I got excited about, called meloxicam. It was not a very serious medication, an NSAID, but would hopefully bring down my persistent swelling, pain and inflammation. But of course, there was a catch: I co